What Makes Finnish Kids so Smart?

I really enjoyed reading the article "What Makes Finnish Kids so Smart?" It really made me thinkg about the United States and what we are doing with the education program. Finland students are among the smartest in the world. Americans finished among the World's C students. This shows that Finland teachers, educators must be doing something that America needs to get started on.

Sometimes I think that the U.S. pressures students to be really smart instead of letting them figure that out by themselves. The U.S. needs to reduce the standards on some things, so that children/ teenagers can experience more things and enjoy them while they are at it instead of hating it and not even trying to understand what they are doing. Children/teenagers do not always listen because a lot of the stuff they think they do not need to know. I feel this needs to be further analyzed because students should be able to have power of some of the things they are learning and be able to teach themselves how to do it instead of teachers always getting on them for not doing it right or having it due in a short amount of time.

Finnish students are able to have more free time and are not always hastled by teachers. The teachers also do not assign that much homework "high school students rarely get more than half-hour of homework a night." This means that Finland teachers are giving students some free time to experience things on their own and are not giving them any pressure to get things done in a quick amount of time.

Finland students do not have to deal with a lot of technology either. They do not have to worry about the stress that some U.S. students do about figuring out how to use technology. They also are not wasting their time on the internet searching Facebook or playing games. Technology in America is very important though. I agree with the U.S. that students should learn how to use it because in every day America they are going to be using it. I do not agree with children/teenagers being on the computer 24/7 checking their email and playing online games though. This makes children/teenagers less social and less focused on what's happening in the real world.

Overall, I really enjoyed this article because I now realize that America needs to do a better job of educating children and young adults. I feel that sometimes the U.S. needs to communicate with other countries and listen to what the other countries have to say about their program and what is working best for them, so that every country can become better and have smarter students all around.